Swinger

LE

If nothing else, the current recruitment climate works against anyone applying with any "grey areas" in their past.

The Army is almost fully manned so at recruitment level they can pick and choose.

Let's say out of 20 people, 10 are average ability, 5 are weaker, 2 have disabilities, 2 are educationally lacking and 1 has been SNLR'd previously for refusing to serve in theatre (I know, I know). If you were the recruiter and needed 7 recruits to maintain targets, which 10 would you pick (allowing yourself the luxury of having 3 reserves)?

Old-Salt

I can see the general consensus being that you should have went back on the tour, passed your concerns up the chain of command and left it at that. Did anyone else from your platoon refuse to soldier or just you?

As it is you left someone else to fill the gap you left and will now have to suffer the consequences of that decision.

LE

Bit of a non story for me to be honest, an unqualified and inexperienced officer can only do as much damage as those around him, particularly those in a senior role will allow him.

You have a point though, it was quite unnerving sometimes watching a gaggle of bewildered, improperly briefed and ill equipped part timers spilling out onto a HLS with spacka goggles on and a 'what the f*ck do I do now?' look on their chops whilst being led from the front by a sometime bespectacled maths teacher from Bedford....

Swinger

i dont pretend that im some sort of legend im just a ta soldier but i train hard and know how to do my job so is it to much to ask that i get a competent platoon cmdr? and the ncos under him were ok but the ones who actually persuaded his judgment though were the type of people who say things like e.g '' im just here to kill ragheads'' and play airsoft in theyre spare time... everyone knows these people theyre called cnuts

LE

I think the only injustice is the Adj not explaining the severity of this action. What you wanted to do was question and undermine the decisions made by those higher than your commander. For you to be right, they would basically have to concede you're right we're wrong, it aint gonna appen.

LE

MOFW - you were quite right to complain about the quality of your platoon commander. The CofC let you down badly. They should have immediately replaced him and appointed a Sword of Honour/Queens Medal winner in his place. Subject of course to your liking the colour of his eyes.

In addition you should have had an upgrade, receiving only rations with double haribo and a chance for the end of tour lottery allowing you to sleep with the royal princess of your choice.

These situations are always difficult to call fom a position of non-involvement. Having been an Adjutant myself my sympathies tend to lie with the system. However as Bollock-chops quite rightly says, you should have had the seriousness of your "choice" made clear to you and the consequences of your refusing to soldier should have been laid out for you. I'm afraid the system does not like creaking gates and there is a tendency in these types of cases to say "Well what fcuking sort of Pl Cmd do you fcuking want? Vanilla, strawberry or chocolate? Tough, you have banana flavour now man up."

Were the options for redress if you disagreed with the decision to SNLR you laid out for you? If you are being 100% honest, was it just the TA officer commanding you and your professional opinion of him that was the only issue? Because if it was not, then you are wasting your own time trying to rewrite your history.

They used to say if an infinite number of chimps typed we would get the works of Shakespeare, the internet has proved this is NOT the case...

Swinger

i love that type of attitude with people. '' really you complained that your platoon comander wasnt qualified what would you know you sprog!'' um quite allot actually ive seen first hand a man infront of his platoon install confidence in his med plan by saying well i havent made one? (this is our fourth patrol in btw after not receiving orders just being told '' i want to go for a walk with you chaps'') i understand that it may fall down to an nco to call in med evacs or air support or a range of things but once id queried this to him and to them he simply replied well theres not exactly a set precedure for calling in air or idf? am i wrong to assume that to call in idf there is a procedure or do you just get on the net and say bombs here now? this is a man who couldnt tell me what the acronym mist stood for or tell me how to send a 9 liner... thumbs up on the confidence

and so you are clear, 1 month after me leaving theatre and refusing to soldier a regular officer was brought in to lead the platoon and he was told he would never be allowed to lead a patrol on that tour again... but no my judgment of this man must be wrong as you quite clearly have suggested.

i understand my judgement let people down out in theatre but it wasnt long before they were all told the platoon was disbanded and banned from patrolling due to the platoon cmdrs great example of not actually informing 0 they were in contact until after the engagement?
but yes i was wrong to not want to serve under him

MIA

As far as I am aware SNLR is the 'kiss of death' for re-enlistment in the regs or the TA.

It was used quite a lot in the early to mid 80's to get rid of people instead of offering redundancy (The cheap option you see). It was used pretty indiscriminately as well, especially if your 'face did'nt fit'.

We lost a lot of good people because of this, not one of the British Army's finest moments.

I am afraid though that L/Pte Jones is probably right. SNLR is usually pretty irrevocable and you should have sought redress at the time you were handed your cards and your last warrant. What? They didn't tell you all of that? B4stards!

They used to say if an infinite number of chimps typed we would get the works of Shakespeare, the internet has proved this is NOT the case...

LE

If everyone said "I'm not going back because I've no faith in my commander" then we'd have some serious problems.

You can't just decide I'm not going back! However I will under my terms matey!

What a load of, you took the queens shilling and you serve, if you had a problem with said officer then there is a coc to follow, unfortunately you are right at the bottom so have no clout to make things happen what so ever.

So you make the complaint and go back to keeping you mates alive when operating under this officer.

Beat me to it but SERVICE NO LONGER REQUIRED is in my mind it very self explanatory